Savin' Me
by alanakin
Summary: Sam and Dean go on a hunt that may very well be the last for one of them.


Part 1

Dean sat at the wheel of the Impala, the windows were down, and 'Master of Puppet's' by Metallica was blasting on the stereo. It was an ordinary day for him, and for Sam, his brother and fellow ghost hunter, who was reading through their dad's journal while they sped along the highway.

There were rumours of a mysterious spirit haunting the nearby town of Antwerp, and that was what they were on their way to investigate.

'Can you find anything in dad's journal about the town?' Dean said, just as the song finished and another Metallica tune began to blast out of the stereo.

'No,' Sam said, and snapped the journal shut, 'I can't believe dad sent us here when he doesn't even have any info on the place himself.'

'I'm sure he knows what he's doing,' Dean said.

'Yeah, that's what you always think,' Sam said, and threw the journal to the floor, 'you just trust everything that dad says unquestionably. But I don't, and I'm not so sure that we should check this one out.'

'Why not?' Dean asked, 'Is it because of those dreams you've been having?'

'No,' Sam said, and turned to look out the window, 'I didn't think you knew about them.'

'Yeah, well, I can hear you mumbling in your sleep all the time and it sounds like you're having nightmares,' Dean said, and pulled the car over on the side of the road. 'Now tell me the truth.'

'What do you mean?'

'You know what I mean Sam,' Dean said, 'Come one, there's no reason to lie about this, if you're having visions or dreams that you think might be important you have to tell me.'

'Well,' Sam said, trying to avoid eye contact with Dean, 'I have been having one dream for a few days now, and I don't know what it means, but I think it might have something to do with the town we're going to.'

'What, Antwerp?' Dean said, 'you think something might happen there?'

'Yeah,' Sam said, 'at least that's what I keep dreaming about.'

'And what happens in these dreams?' Dean said, 'and you better tell me cause I am not moving the car until you do, and I'm sure you don't want to stay here all night.'

'Look, Dean, I'm not sure if they mean anything, and they probably don't,' Sam said, 'and I don't want to get too worried about something that probably won't ever happen.'

'You know what Sammy,' Dean said, 'I might agree with you if you hadn't been having all these dreams and visions that come true all the time. If there is something you're seeing and it's to do with our next job I want you to tell me.'

'Okay,' Sam said, 'if you really want to know the truth, I've been dreaming about you.'

'And what are they about?' Dean said, 'not that it's bad to dream about someone as handsome as me, if that's the way you feel.'

'Oh, yeah, very funny Dean,' Sam said, while undoing his seatbelt and opening the door.

'What are you doing?' Dean said, as Sam slammed the car door,'I didn't think it was that bad, come on, it was kind of funny.'

Dean opened his door and walked around to the back of the car where Sam was standing leaning against the hood. When he got there he could instantly see that Sam had something he was seriously concerned about.

'What are the dreams about then?' he said, and Sam turned around to face him.

'They're all the same,' Sam said, 'every single one for the last week or so. We're in Antwerp, and we're hunting this spirit or whatever it is. We're standing near an old building of some sort and suddenly this woman, a spirit of some sort, comes up to you and calls your name, then you just grab your gun and shoot yourself in the head.'

For a minute neither brother could talk, until Dean broke the silence.

'So do you think this dream could be more than a dream?'

'Yeah,' Sam said, 'I think so, I don't see what else it could be, seeing as I have it so often.'

'Well, that gives me even more of a reason to want to hunt that bitch down.' Dean said.

'No,' Sam said, 'We can't go there now, I thought if I told you…'

'If you told me I wouldn't go, is that what you were going to say? Cause I hope it wasn't. You know what we have to do, there are people dying in that town and we have to find a way to end it. Even if it means taking a few risks, it's all part of the job. And who knows, we might be able to use the dream to help us. At least now we have an idea about what the thing looks like, and where it is.'

'I just don't want to take the risk,' Sam said, 'but if you still want to go, I'll go with you.'

'Yeah,' Dean said, 'I still want to go, we have no other choice. Besides, I'll call dad, see if he can help us out.'

'You know he won't answer his phone,' Sam said, 'He never does. We just have to face that we're alone on this one, as hard as that might be.'

'You're right,' Dean said, 'we've been alone on jobs before and we've done alright, I don't see this one as being any different. Now, let's get back on the road, we've only got a few more hours to go.'

'Hey Dean,' Sam said, as Dean was already opening the drivers side door.

'Yeah,' Dean said.

'You mind if I drive for a bit?' Sam asked, and did not have to wait long for a reply as Dean threw the keys to him instantly.

'Sure,' he said, 'I sure could do with a rest before we get into town. We've got a lot of work.

Dean walked over to the other side of the car and sat where Sam had been before. Sam started the engine, and before long they were speeding along the highway as before.

'Just wake me up when we get there,' Dean said, already nodding off to sleep.

The Impala pulled into an empty car park outside a modest looking motel. Sam was at the wheel, while Dean slept, snoring loudly.

'Dean,' Sam said, and started to shake his arm, 'Dean, wake up, we're here.'

'What?' Dean said sleepily, looking around to see where they were.

'We're in Antwerp,' Sam said, 'I'm gonna go pay for a room, you can stay here it you want.'

'Yeah whatever,' Dean said, stretching, 'make sure you get a good room too, not like that one near where Sarah lived. That was terrible.'

'Well, I'm sure they don't have rooms like that in small hillbilly towns like this. How long do I say we're gonna stay here?'

'Pay for a week,' Dean said, 'and if we're lucky we'll be outta here by then.'

'Yeah I hope so,' Sam said, and began to walk towards the motel.

The reception area was fairly modest, there was a large wooden desk, where a young man with neck long black hair sat, there was a computer, that seemed to be very out of date, and there were various hunting trophies around the room.

When Sam opened the door the young man sitting at the desk stood up.

'Hi,' he said, 'are you after a room?'

'Yeah,' Sam said, 'a double room.'

'Okay,' the young man said, 'let me just check if I have any available.'

'Is it alright if I stay for a week?' Sam asked, 'It might be less, but I'd like to pay for a week straight up.'

'That'll be fine,' the man said, and as he walked to the back wall of the room where all the room keys were hanging, Sam saw from his name tag that his name was Oliver.

He took a key off one of the hooks on the back wall, and as he turned to give it to Sam his eyes went wide with horror. At first Sam was not sure how to react to this, but when he saw Oliver grab the key and slash his throat with it, he turned around to see what he was looking at.

Standing behind Sam was a young blonde woman, who would have been beautiful had her skin not been as white as bone, and her shoulder long hair matted and tangled. Across the woman's throat was a huge cut, and there was a large patch of blood on her chest. Her face was bruised, and several of her teeth were missing.

The instant Sam looked into her eyes, his own went wide, and he slowly backed towards a wall in the room on which were hung a collection of large hunting knives. Grabbing one of these in his hands, he nodded towards the woman, who smiled at him, revealing her almost completely toothless mouth.

Part 2

Sam held the knife and just as he was about to thrust it into his own chest there was a loud bang. The rock salt flew straight through the woman, hitting Sam in the chest. He hit the wall hard, and the knife fell out of his hand. Barely a second later, Sam fell to the floor, missing the knife by a matter of inches.

When Dean was sure that the woman was not coming back, he ran over to Sam to see if he was okay.

'Sam,' he said, shaking him roughly, 'Sam, you hear me?'

When Sam did not wake up, Dean put his gun on the floor and bent down to see how injured he was. When he tried to lift him into a sitting position Sam started mumbling.

'Dean, what happened?' he said in a slurred, drunk sounding voice.

'We'll talk about that later,' Dean said, and helped Sam to stand up. 'Right now though, you've gotta get in the car so we can get out of here.'

Slowly Dean led Sam to the car and after he was in the car and safe for a while, Dean went into the reception office and found a mobile phone on the desk. He quickly dialed three numbers and when someone answered he said:

'I'm at the Antwerp Motel, there's a man here who's killed himself.'

After this he smashed the phone on the ground and walked back to the impala.

Sam was leaning back against the seat when Dean climbed back into the car and started to drive away from the motel. When he was sure that they were a safe distance away, he shook Sam again, and found that he would not answer.

'Great,' Dean said to himself, and pushed the pedal down a little further. There was another town called Bitzburg about half an hour from Antwerp, and Dean was hoping that they would have somewhere that they could stay.

About fifteen minutes into the drive to Bitzburg, Dean noticed that Sam was mumbling, almost as though he was having another nightmare.

'Sam,' he said, and shook him gently, but he would not wake up. Instead his body started convulsing and he started to scream his brother's name out at the top of his voice.

Dean reacted quickly by swerving the car off the road and into a small clearing. At almost the exact moment he did this, Sam's eyes snapped open. They were wide with horror, and when he saw that Dean was sitting beside him, he recoiled and tried to open the car door.

'Sam,' Dean said, concerned, 'what's wrong with you? It's just me.'

'What,' Sam said, 'I thought you were dead, I was so sure of it this time.'

'Well I'm not,' Dean said, 'and I don't plan to be anytime soon, these dreams are just dreams, I'm not gonna let them come true.'

'Don't you see,' Sam said, almost despairingly, 'you have no choice, this spirit is going to look into your eyes and then you will kill yourself. You won't be able to control your own body.'

'That's not going to happen,' Dean said, and started the car's engine again, 'not all of your dreams come true and we've stopped them before. We'll do it again.'

'I don't know if there's anything you can do this time,' Sam said, 'maybe I'm having the dreams because I'm the only one who can stop them from coming true.'

'Well I say for starters we find out who this chick is and then we find out how to kill her.' Dean said, as he drove the car back onto the highway.

When Dean woke up the following morning in a motel room in Bitzburg, something didn't feel right, and at first he couldn't figure out what it was. He looked over to Sam, who was still sleeping, and probably would be for some time, and then it hit him. He had not been woken that night by Sam's screaming or mumbling, which meant that he hadn't had the nightmare.

Walking over to Sam's bed, Dean checked that he was okay, before changing and leaving the room to get some breakfast. Just as he was on his way out the door, he heard Sam say his name, and decided that breakfast could wait for a little longer.

'What is it?' he said to Sam as he closed and locked the door and threw the room key on a small coffee table.

'I didn't have the dream last night.' Sam said, as he crawled out of bed, grimacing and holding his head after he stood up.

'Head still hurt?' Dean asked, trying to ignore what he had said about the dream.

'Yeah,' Sam said.

'Well I hope you're feeling up to doing some research,' Dean said, 'because we gotta find out how to kill that bitch.'

'Yeah, I should be alright,' Sam said, 'probably be better if you hadn't shot me.'

'I had no choice,' Dean said, 'otherwise you would have killed yourself.'

'I know,' Sam said, 'but you still can't expect me to be completely thankful about that. Just think about what happened in the asylum, you were giving me shit about what I did for weeks.'

'That was different though,' Dean said, smiling, 'cause you didn't have any control over what you were doing, and, you were trying to kill me.'

'Yeah, whatever,' Sam said, 'I guess I wasn't exactly telling the truth before. I don't hold anything against you, I never will, you've saved me so many times, and probably will again.'

'You've done the same for me,' Dean said, 'so don't always make yourself out to be the useless one, we both have our flaws, and you have to admit, we make one hell of a team.'

'Sure do,' Sam said, but could not bring himself to smile, as much as he felt like it.

Dean noticed this, and as much as he would have liked to have put any thoughts about Sam's nightmare behind him, he knew that they would eventually have to talk about it again.

'The dream still bothering you?' he said, 'because I think you should stop worrying about it. I can take care of myself, and you need to be concentrating on the job. You'll get hurt if you have your mind on other things.'

'Where are we going to start researching then?' Sam asked, trying to take his mind off the dream. 'There's no libraries in the area, no places to really start, so we're gonna have to go somewhere else.'

'Yeah I thought about that too,' Dean said, 'and I think we should be able to do all the research we need here.'

'What do you mean?' Sam said, 'do you know something you haven't told me?'

'Well, when I went to pay for the room, I was talking to the guy who owns the place and he told me that not many people come past here anymore. Not since there was a strange religious cult that operated in town.'

'So you think this cult might have had something to do with it?' Sam said, 'maybe they murdered the girl, and she's getting revenge on anyone she can.'

'That's exactly what I was thinking,' Dean said, 'because I asked the owner if he knew what the cult had done and he said that they murdered a teenage girl, then said that they were saving her. Exactly the type of death that will result in a violent spirit, and, I have the names of the people that were in the cult at the time, or at least those that didn't go to jail.'

'So where do we have to go?' Sam said, as he started to take some clothes out of his bag.

'Most of the people still live in the town,' Dean said, 'they're all the ones that didn't have a direct part in the murder. Claimed they weren't even there, although everyone knew better, they just couldn't prove it.'

'Okay then,' Sam said, as he walked to the small bathroom, just give me some time to get ready.

'I'll be waiting all day then.' Dean said to himself, but found that he was also too concerned about the job at hand to manage even the slightest smile.

Part 3

The woman's house was large, but practically falling apart, and as the Impala pulled up in the driveway Sam realised that he had seen the house before. It was the one that he saw in his dreams.

'Hey Dean,' he said, 'I don't know if you should go in there.'

'Why not?' Dean said, 'we have to see this woman, she's the last on the list, and that mother of that murdered girl. If she's out for revenge then I'd say that this is the one she's after.'

'I know that,' Sam said, 'but this is the house that I saw in my dream.'

'Would you please stop thinking about that damn dream Sammy,' Dean said as he opened the car door and started to walk towards the house.

'It's Sam,' Sam said, but Dean had already walked away from the car.

Sam walked quickly to catch up with Dean, who was already at the front door. The windows of the house were boarded up, and it seemed as though no one could live there.

'Are you sure this is where she lives?' Sam said, but before Dean could answer, the door clicked open, and behind it was a woman who looked to be around sixty.

'I'm detective Hetfield, this is detective Hammett,' Dean said, showing her his fake ID, 'may we please come in, we have some questions to ask you?'

'What's this about,' the woman said, and glared at Dean.

'Well, we need to talk to you about your daughter,' Dean said.

'I have nothing to say about her,' the woman said, 'she died twenty-five years ago.'

'We know that,' Sam said, 'but we need to talk to you about what happened to her. We aren't here to arrest you or anything like that. We just want information.'

'Make it quick then,' the woman said, and she led the brothers inside.

The inside of the house was almost as bad as the outside, the furniture was old and moth eaten, and it looked as though no one had dusted for years.

The woman sat down in one of the disgusting couches and gestured for them to hurry up.

'I don't have all day you know,' she said, 'so you better hurry up.'

'Thank you for letting us talk to you ma'am,' Dean said, 'we are interested in hearing the details of what happened to your daughter. The way that you believe it all happened.'

'Well,' she said, stroking a strange pendant she wore around her neck, 'my daughter was immoral, she liked to date boys, and sometimes she would do more than just kiss them. She knew how I felt about such activities, so if you ask me she brought her death upon herself.'

'So you killed her because she liked to have fun?' Dean asked, quite shocked by what she had said.

'In my religion, those sorts of activities are punishable by death,' she said, 'and that's exactly what happened to her. We dragged her out to the field behind this very house, and what we did to her was to save her. Her spirit was released by her death, and her impurities were washed away. of course your type had issues with what we did, but then you just don't understand. The world is evil, everyone who fraternizes with others before they marry deserve to die just like my daughter.'

'You do realise that this religion you speak so strongly about is nothing more than a cult, don't you!' Dean yelled at the woman, 'you killed your own daughter, and now her spirit is free to kill anyone she pleases.'

'So you know about that, do you?' the woman said, laughing with a horrible witch-like cackle.'

'Yeah we know all about what your daughter is doing,' Dean said, 'and it needs to end, it needs to end with you.'

'Shame your friend doesn't agree,' the woman said, and started to cackle again.

Dean didn't know what she meant, but as he looked behind himself to where Sam had been standing, he noticed that he was lying on the ground.

'What happened to him?' Dean screamed at the woman, 'What did you do!'

'I didn't do nothing,' the woman said, while holding back laughter, 'now get out of my house.

Dean couldn't agree more with the woman as he kneeled down to see if Sam was okay.

'Wake up Sam,' he said, 'we gotta get out of here.'

'Oh,' the woman said, between fits of her horrible laughter, 'poor Sammy, looks like he's havin' a spot of trouble there.'

'It's Sam to you bitch,' Dean said, and he pulled Sam up off the dirty floor. While he did this Sam snapped awake, and tried to shake off Dean.

'I'm okay,' he said, as he pushed Dean away, 'just leave me alone.'

'Oooh,' the woman said, taunting Dean, 'looks like your little boyfriend doesn't like you anymore. What a shame.'

'Shut your mouth,' Dean said, as he pulled his pistol from underneath his jacket, 'or I'll permanently shut it for you.'

This was enough to make the woman quit her raucous laughter, and Dean was glad for that. Being around her was so horrible it was almost painful.

When he turned around to tell Sam it was time to leave, Dean noticed that he was no longer in the house. The front door stood ajar, and as Dean started to leave, he heard to woman start to laugh again, so he shot a few rounds above her head.

The woman jumped to the floor in terror, then stood up and ran at Dean with a knife that she had obviously been hiding. Dean reacted quickly, dodging her easily, and hitting her on the head with his gun. She fell to the floor hard, and Dean didn't look back to see if she would get up again. He knew that she wouldn't.

Outside the house, Sam was sitting in the Impala, waiting for Dean to return. He had heard the gunshots, but was not concerned, as he knew what was going to happen. The vision had been so realistic, and he now knew exactly what he had to do.

When Dean walked out of the house, Sam pretended to be busy reading through their dad's journal, and didn't look up even as Dean opened the door and sat in the car.

After about a minute of sitting like this, Sam finally broke the silence, but still could not bring himself to look at Dean.

'I saw what we have to do,' Sam said in a quavering voice, 'we have to come back here tonight. She's going to be here.'

'Who's going to be here?' Dean asked, and he pulled the journal out of Sam's hands, he was fighting back tears.

'We have to be here tonight, at seven, and then we'll see her,' Sam said, 'she wants revenge on her mother. If we bring her out and give her to the girl, all this will end.'

'You saw this?' Dean asked, 'is that why you went all weird in there?'

'Yeah,' Sam said, 'but I still saw you shooting yourself in the head, only this time I saw something else, but I don't want to talk about it.'

'Okay then,' Dean said, 'We'll be back here tonight at seven, if you're so sure, and don't worry about me, nothing's going to happen.'

As the car pulled away from the dingy house, Sam was thinking about what he had seen, and how he knew exactly what he had to do.

Part 4

Back at the motel room, Dean was having a shower, while Sam sat at a small table with Dean's pistol. He looked over his shoulder to make sure that Dean wasn't going to come out of the bathroom anytime soon, and when he was sure, he unloaded Dean's gun, and put in a blank magazine.

With that done, he took his own gun and put the real magazine in it. He heard the shower turn off, and quickly put the gun back on Dean's bed where he had left it.

A few minutes later Dean emerged from the bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel, and walked over to his bag which was sitting on his bed next to his gun. Sam didn't even look up from the note he was writing while Dean did this, and Dean assumed that he was still concerned about his vision.

'You ready?' Dean said, as he took some clothes out of his bag.

'Yeah,' Sam said, still not looking up from what he was writing, 'just waiting for you.'

Dean went back into the bathroom to change, while Sam finished the note he was writing and slipped it under Dean's pillow. At almost the exact moment he did this, Dean came back out of the bathroom, and Sam quickly grabbed Dean's gun.

'You might want to take this,' he said, and threw the gun to Dean, who caught it, and slipped it into the back of his jeans.

'You ready to go?' he asked Sam, who simply nodded and put his own gun into his jacket pocket.

'Listen,' Dean said, 'I don't want you worrying about me, I'll be fine.'

'It's okay Dean,' Sam said, and allowed himself a brief smile, 'I think you're going to be fine, we just have to get the woman out to the girl, how hard can that be?'

'Now you're starting to act like my brother,' Dean said, and patted Sam on the back, 'it's just like old times, we're going to go in, get the woman, take her to her murderous ghost daughter, and that's it.'

'Okay then,' Sam said, 'lets go, all this waiting is driving me insane.'

Sam opened the door to the motel and walked outside, while Dean remained inside for a while. Sam didn't seem the same to him, and he couldn't figure out why, but then, perhaps it was just nerves, it was an important mission after all.

At the Impala, Sam was waiting for Dean, in a similar way to the day before, except this time he wasn't hiding from his brother.

'How long will it take to get to the house?' Sam asked, as Dean pulled the car away from the motel.

'About ten, maybe fifteen minutes,' Dean said, 'why? You in a hurry or something?'

'No,' Sam said, 'I just want to get this over with as quickly as possible. This gig has just bothered me so much, I'll be glad when it's over.'

'So will I,' Dean said, 'I'll be so happy when we leave this place for good.'

The rest of the drive was silent, with both brothers too concerned about the job at hand to speak.

The house appeared even more run-down at nighttime. The light coming from within was flickering, which was never a good sign. As the Impala approached, the woman looked out one of the windows, and started to cackle again.

As soon as he stopped the car, Dean turned to Sam, nodded and opened the door. Dean walked to the front of the car, and waited for Sam to join him, and then they both walked up to the house together.

A sudden gust of wind made a nearby tree creak, and Dean pulled out his gun. Sam looked over in the same direction, his gun also drawn, and after realizing what the sound had been he continued on to the house.

'Dean,' a voice whispered, and Dean turned to look, his finger on the trigger.

The girl stood in front of Dean, smiling at him, and when Dean tried to turn away, he found that he could not. He was stuck.

'Dean!' Sam screamed, but it was too late, Dean gazed at the girl with a blank face, as he pointed the gun at his own head. He pulled the trigger, but when there was only a click, he threw the gun to the floor, and the girl turned to look at Sam.

Dean quickly snapped out of the trance that the girl had put him in, and went to reach for his gun, before realizing that it was empty. It was then that he realised what Sam had done.

'Don't look at her Sam!' he yelled to his brother, but Sam did not listen. He threw his own gun to Dean, then covered his eyes.

'You have to listen to me Dean!' Sam yelled, 'the mother has a pendant, it has some of the girls ashes in it, you have to take it off her, it's what stops her from being killed.'

After saying this, he took his hands away from his face, and turned to face the girl. She smiled at him, and he smiled back for the few seconds before his face became devoid of all emotion.

Dean ran to the door of the house as quickly as he could, and when he reached it he pounded on the door, before giving up and shooting the lock. He kicked the door open, and ran inside.

The woman was waiting for him though, and when he ran into the house there was a loud gunshot, Dean fell to the floor and yelled out in pain.

Part 5

Dean saw the woman standing beside him when he was lying on the floor. The blood from his arm was already starting to pool beside him. He reached out for her leg and pulled her down beside him. She fell, hitting her head against the corner of a table as she did, and when she was lying beside Dean, he reached for her throat and snapped the chain off the pendant she wore.

Smashing the pendant on the floor, Dean heard tyres screeching outside, and stood up as quickly as he could. He grabbed the woman by her hair, and dragged her alongside him as he walked outside.

His car was driving away from the house as he did this, with Sam at the wheel. As he watched, it stopped, and for a moment Dean was relieved, before he noticed that it was turning around and heading straight for the house.

'I have what you want!' he screamed, hoping that the girl would hear him, and she did.

The girl appeared beside Dean, and after she saw her mother lying on the ground, slowly starting to wake up she stared into her eyes. The woman started to scream as her body began to convulse.

Sam was free of the trance, and noticed that he was driving straight towards the house, and towards where Dean was standing, screaming for him to stop. He tried to do so, but the brakes were not working.

Seconds from hitting the house, Sam sharply turned the car away, but it was too late. The car brushed up against the side of the house and rolled onto its side as Sam desperately tried to swerve away.

A large part of the house gave way after the car struck it, causing the car to roll once again, this time so that it was upside down. Sam was not wearing a seatbelt, and he hit the ground hard, while parts of the house fell on top of the car.

Dean ran as quickly as he could, screaming out Sam's name, and when he reached the car he reached his arm through the smashed window to pull Sam out, but he was pinned down by a piece of roofing that had fallen and almost completely crushed the car.

'No, Sammy,' Dean said, pulling hopelessly at Sam's arm, 'you can't do this.'

Sam's eyes opened, but only slightly, and Dean could tell that this would be that last time he would ever speak to his brother.

'Dean,' Sam said weakly, 'I'm sorry.'

'Sorry for what?' Dean said, fighting back tears, 'you saved me.'

'Sorry I wrecked your car,' Sam said.

'No,' Dean said, 'don't worry about that, it's not important. We gotta get you out of here. I'm gonna call 911, so just hold on for a little longer.'

'I don't think I can,' Sam said, and his eyes slowly closed.

'No,' Dean said, the tears spilling down his face, 'Sammy, Sammy, you have to wake up, it can't end this way.'

Sam's eyes remained closed as Dean reached for his cell phone and dialed 911.

In the hospital, Dean was the loneliest he had ever been. The police had been to question him several times, and he told them the same lie each time. Only today was different, Dean just didn't know it yet.

John quietly entered Dean's room and walked over to his son's bed. He looked so peaceful while he slept, and although he knew it would be a shame to wake him and bring him back into the world where his brother had just died, he knew that he had to.

'Dean,' he said, as he gently shook his arm, 'Wake up son.'

'Dad,' Dean said groggily, and then quickly sat up when he realised that it really was him.

'Hey Dean,' he said, giving him a strong hug, while trying to remain strong, but failing.

'Why are you here?' Dean said, 'how do you even know that we, I mean, I am here.'

'Sam called me last night and told me what he was going to do,' John said, wiping his eyes, 'I tried to call you to warn you, but he must've blocked my phone or something.'

'What'd he tell you?' Dean said.

'That he had seen your death in a vision and the only way to stop it was to swap places with you.'

'So he knew that he was going to die the whole time?' Dean said, 'he should've told me, we could've worked something out.'

'Yeah, I know, but there's nothing you can do now,' he said, and sat down in a chair beside Dean's bed. 'I've just been past your motel room, I took all your stuff from there, so that no one will find it. I found this,' he said, and pulled a note out of his pocket. He handed it to Dean, who read it, with tears in his eyes.

It read as follows:

_Dean, _

_I know that by the time you read this I will be gone, but that is just the way it had to be, I could not just stand by and watch you die, and I know that you could not do the same for me. I have called dad, so he might contact you sometime soon. Please tell him that I am sorry for everything I said._

_Your brother, Sam_

'I can't believe it,' Dean said, 'I always thought I would be the one to die for him. It shouldn't be this way.'

'There's nothing we can do about it,' John said, 'Sam has given his life, and I would have done the same, as would you. The main thing we can do for Sam is to continue our lives, I'm sure he wouldn't want you to give up doing what you love.'

'I know,' Dean said, 'but it's just so hard.'

'I want you to come with me,' John said, 'check out of here today, I checked with the doctor, and he says that it's okay. We should continue hunting this thing, we're closer than ever, I can feel it.'

'You're a jerk!' Dean yelled, 'do you know that, your son has just died and all you can think about is killing that damn demon.'

John was hit hard by what Dean had said, and although he tried not so show it, Dean could see that he was hurt.

'I'm sorry dad,' he said, 'I can't think straight at the moment.'

'Dean,' John said, 'I want you to understand that I am doing this out of more than just revenge, I'm doing it out of love. I loved your mother, and Sam loved Jess, and now I've lost my wife and one of my son's. You've lost a brother too, we need something to keep our minds on, or we will not be able to move on. Hunting helped me move on after your mother died, and it did the same for Sam after Jess died.'

'I just don't feel like I could ever move on,' Dean said, 'but I agree with you. I'll try to get out of here today, then after Sam's, well, you know, after we say goodbye to Sam properly, I'm going to start hunting again, for Sam.'

'For Sam,' John said, as he left the room.

Dean changed into his normal clothes, and waited for his father to return with the discharge papers. He was broken now that Sam was gone, but he would not let it stop him from living his life. Sam would not have wanted that.

'Thanks Sammy,' he said to himself, and in his mind he could imagine Sam in a better place, saying the two words that Dean missed more than ever. _It's Sam._


End file.
